Bail Money

The latest video from Nigeria’s Boko Haram Islamic extremist group shows the bodies of two beheaded men accused of spying, and copies some of the hallmarks of propaganda from the Islamic State group.

The SITE intelligence group said the video called “Harvest of Spies” was posted Monday on Twitter by Boko Haram’s new media arm. The video is much slicker than previous ones and SITE said it borrows certain elements from IS productions, such as the sound of a beating heart and heavy breathing immediately before the execution.

Boko Haram has said in social media messages last month that it is considering swearing allegiance to IS.

Monday’s video shows a man identified as Dawoud Muhammad of Baga city on his knees in the bush before several armed and masked fighters. In response to questions, Muhammad says a police officer paid him 5,000 naira ($25) to spy and promised to make him so rich he would never have to farm again. The other man is identified as Muhammad Awlu.

The video does not show the actual beheadings but the two bodies after the executions, with heads on the chests.

Boko Haram previously published only one beheading, of a Nigerian fighter pilot whose plane went missing in September.

Just say it, Comrade Chris, and get it over with: This was dog whistle racism!

CHRIS MATTHEWS: It’s a remarkable day when the leaders of the opposition in Congress allowed this to happen. Think it through. What country in the world would let a foreign leader come in and attempt to wrest from the president control of U.S. foreign policy. And that’s what the applause was about today. That was what the battle of applauses was about, to take power away from the president. So we’ll see, it may succeed and we may see that there’s going to be a lot more legislative intent here in terms of any treaty, a stronger push by Congress to insist on a vote, up or down on any treaty. But clearly that was what was going on here. This was a takeover attempt by Netanyahu with his compliant American partners to take American foreign policy out of the hands of the president.

According to CNN’s Gloria Borger, it was a “political” moment when Israel prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu brought up the Holocaust in his speech today to Congress:

“At the end of it, when I think he really veered off into political territory, don’t know if it was on a delay at that point, but when he sort of raised the specter of the Holocaust and ‘Never again’ and Elie Wiesel–there was this great — Ari Fleischer could have done this great political speech,” Borger said.

Top U.S. officials ahead of the speech sternly warned Netanyahu not to reveal secret details of the talks, which are entering a crucial final stage, warning such revelations could have a disastrous impact on hopes for a deal.

“I am confident we have an inclusive and comprehensive picture of what is going on,” Intelligence minister Yuval Steinitz told CNN, though he declined to elaborate on the source of the information other than to say it was not from American or “other sources.”

Sen. Elizabeth Warren (D-MA) on Monday evening said she would not attend Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s speech to Congress on Tuesday, becoming the eighth Democratic senator to boycott the address.

“It’s unfortunate that Speaker Boehner’s actions on the eve of a national election in Israel have made Tuesday’s event more political and less helpful for addressing the critical issue of nuclear nonproliferation and the safety of our most important ally in the Middle East,” Warren said in a statement to the Boston Globe.

Which begs the obvious question: Why did Boehner pick the DHS funding bill as the vehicle to try and de-fund Obama’s executive amnesty?

WASHINGTON — The House will finally vote on a bill to fund the Department of Homeland Security without immigration measures, Speaker John Boehner (R-Ohio) told his conference at a meeting on Tuesday.

The vote will come after the House narrowly averted a shutdown last Friday when the House GOP rejected a “clean” DHS funding bill passed in the Senate, and then 52 conservative Republican members joined Democrats to block even a three-week continuing resolution. The House passed a one-week funding bill in hopes that Senate Democrats would allow a conference between the two chambers to go forward, but that was rejected on Monday.

Senate Democrats have already shown that they will not vote for a funding bill that passed the House in January. That bill would tie funding to ending President Barack Obama’s immigration actions, which could allow as many as 5 million undocumented immigrants to temporarily stay in the country and work.

“With more active threats coming into the homeland, I don’t believe that’s an option,” he said, according to the source. “Imagine if, God forbid, another terrorist attack hits the United States.”

In an appearance on MSNBC’s “Morning Joe” on Tuesday, Obama White House senior adviser Valerie Jarrett offered some reaction to the upcoming address to a joint session of Congress by Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu later in the day.

As for the speech itself, Jarrett explained the reason Obama won’t be watching the address is that he has a full slate.

“Well, he’s got a full day today and I hope we’re going to in a second our announcement for today,” she continued. “He’s action packed. He and the first lady are so excited about the new initiative that we’re going to launch and when you’re ready, I’d love to talk about that.”

The State Department’s counterterrorism office is facing pushback after promoting recent remarks by a Muslim cleric who blamed regional unrest in the Middle East on what he called a “conspiracy” by a “new global colonialism allied to world Zionism.”

The State Department’s official anti-terrorism Twitter account last week tweeted out remarks made by a leading Muslim cleric who, during a speech in Mecca, linked terrorism by the Islamic State (IS) to a plot by supporters of Israel around the world.

Al-Azhar Grand Imam Ahmed al-Tayeb, a leading voice in Sunni Islam, made the comments during a counter-terrorism rally held in the Muslim holy city last week, according to AFP.

Al-Tayeb “blamed unrest in the region on a conspiracy by what he called ‘new global colonialism allied to world Zionism,’” according to the AFP report, which was linked to by the State Department’s Center for Strategic Counterterrorism Communications (CSCC).

Major news out of Libya as AbdelHakim Belhadj, the former head of the Al Qaeda-linked Libyan Islamic Fighting Group, and a major player in the U.S.-backed overthrow of Mummar Gaddafi, has reportedly joined the Islamic State and is leading its forces there. This according to The Blaze National Security journalist Sara Carter on twitter, and Fox News’ Catherine Herridge in a Fox News report.

Belhadj’s ties to Al Qaeda were controversial during the run up to U.S. airstrikes in support of the Libyan rebels, but this did not prevent him from maintaining a high profile at the time,including being made head of the Tripoli Military Council, a position he held until resigning to run for office in May 2012. Belhadj has a reputation for involvement in the international jihad has well, playing a role in the 2004 Madrid training bombings, and accused by investigatorsof being involved in the murder of two Tunisian politicians at behest of the Muslim Brotherhood.

Islamic State fighters landed in Libya back in November of 2014, and have been at work establishing training camps in the Libyan city of Derna before launching a terror offensive which included an attack on a Libyan hotel, attacks on oil field workers, and the execution of 21 Copts in a graphic video which made international headlines.

Two female Democratic senators named Barbara plan to retire in 2016 — and the White House is recycling the same lines to praise them.

Statements from President Obama and Vice President Biden honoring Maryland Sen. Barbara Mikulski, repeat statements lauding Sen. Barbara Boxer (D-Calif.). Mikulski announced her plans to retire on Monday, and Boxer made her announcement last month.

Biden used almost the exact same closing joke in both statements, swapping out each senator’s name.

“I am sorry to see her go, but there are still two years left. And two years of Barbara Mikulski is like six years of any other senator,” Biden said in a statement Monday after Mikulski announced that she’d retire after this term.

“I am sorry to see her go, but there are still two years left. And two years of Barbara Boxer is like having four to six years of any other senator,” he said in January.

And Obama doesn’t get a better grade for creativity either.

“Senator Mikulski is more than just a legendary senator for the people of Maryland, she’s an institution in the United States Senate,” Obama said Monday morning.

That language is almost identical to Obama’s statement on Boxer, which begins: “Barbara Boxer is more than a senator — she’s an institution.”

Mikulski on Monday said that she wanted to spend her next two years devoted to the issues she supports instead of worrying about the rigors of a campaign.